Brief Interlude
by badly-knitted
Summary: It looks like the long, wet winter may finally be over, but there's still room for some April showers… Written for Jae's Monthly Drabble Challenge 146 – April Showers. Set after Vol. 7.


**Title:** Brief Interlude

 **Author:** badly-knitted

 **Characters:** Ryo, Dee.

 **Rating:** G

 **Setting:** After Vol. 7.

 **Summary:** It looks like the long, wet winter may finally be over, but there's still room for some April showers…

 **Word Count:** 1030

 **Written For:** Jae's Monthly Drabble Challenge 146 – April Showers.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

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Winter had been long, cold, and wet. There'd been no shortage of snow, but the frequent rains had washed it away, over and over, leaving the city drab and grey and sodden. The reservoir and the boating lake in Central Park had overflowed their banks more than once and the surrounding grass had been turned to mud, visible whenever the rain had stopped long enough for the water level to drop and some of the flooding to subside. The East River and the Hudson were running higher than most people could ever remember.

Weather forecasters were saying it had been the wettest March in decades, and February hadn't been much better. Ryo could easily believe it. He could scarcely remember a day since the New Year when it hadn't rained. Winter had clung on later than usual too, as if reluctant to surrender to the inevitable changing of the seasons. There was a general grouchiness wherever you went, people grumbling about the miserable weather, the cold, and the damp that was getting into everyone's bones.

But now April had arrived, and it seemed as though practically overnight temperatures had risen, buds on trees had begun to swell, before bursting into blossom, and everywhere Ryo looked, green shoots were pushing their way through the brown earth, giving promise of the riot of color to come. Even the sky was brighter, patches of blue visible between the scudding grey and white clouds, herded across the sky like a flock of sheep, a warm, brisk breeze nipping at their heels.

"Spring at last," Dee said, gazing about at all the new growth as they strode along the street. For the first time in months, canvassing for witnesses was almost a pleasure. "About time too. I was startin' to think we'd be stuck with winter weather until July! Much more rain and we'd have been gettin' to work by boat."

Ryo snorted softly, amused by his fellow detective's flair for melodrama. "Don't exaggerate; it hasn't been that bad."

"Are we livin' in the same city? Central Park is waterlogged! I've lived here my entire life and I can't remember that ever happenin' before! Try walkin' across the grass and you'd be knee deep in mud before you got more than a few steps."

"A couple of weeks of good weather and you'll be complaining it's too hot," Ryo teased his partner.

"Nuh uh, no way! I'd much rather be baskin' in hot, dry weather than sufferin' through the cold and wet. Spring and summer are the best part of the year." Dee climbed the stoop of the next house, Ryo right behind him, and knocked on the door.

Ten minutes later, they emerged from the house again, having gotten some possibly useful information from the elderly couple who lived there. Head down, Dee was flicking through his notes when the first drop of rain splashed his sleeve. Hastily tucking his notebook back in his inside jacket pocket to keep it dry, he scowled up at the sky. "Should've known it was too good to last," he grumbled as raindrops pattered down around them. "Just what we don't need; more rain."

Ryo tipped his head back to observe the small grey cloud that was currently raining on them and smiled. "It's nothing, Dee, just an April shower. It'll be over before you know it." After the heavy downpours and the long days of persistent drizzle they'd endured throughout winter, he found it almost refreshing. There was a whole different character to this rain, with a silvery sheen to the drops as they beaded everything with moisture, shining like diamonds in Dee's hair as the sun found its way through gaps in the clouds. In Ryo's opinion, it was rather pretty.

"Doesn't make it any less wet." Dee shook his head vigorously like a dog, scattering droplets everywhere.

"Look!" Ryo tugged at Dee's sleeve and pointed upwards.

"What?" Dee followed his partner's pointing finger, squinting against the rain dripping into his eyes, and then he saw it, an arc of faint color in the sky, gradually brightening and growing more distinct as he watched. "Oh, hey! Rainbow!"

"When the rain stops it'll be gone," Ryo said softly, gaze fixed on the rainbow, drinking in its beauty. "It hardly sees fair that they last such a short time."

The two men stood stock still in the middle of the sidewalk, ignoring the spring rain slowly soaking into their hair and clothes, unwilling to look away while the rainbow remained. Cars passed back and forth along the street, their tires spraying water, while people hurried past on foot, most of them not sparing even the briefest of glances for one of the wonders of nature. Ryo felt sorry for them, too wrapped up in the everyday pressures of life to appreciate even such a short-lived spectacle. What was the point of anything if you couldn't pause now and then to just enjoy the world around you?

All too soon, the rain slowed and stopped, the cloud moving away, perhaps to rain somewhere else, and the rainbow faded out as if it had never existed. Ryo sighed, shifting his feet and looking about as though coming out of a trance. The sun shone brightly again, its warmth chasing away the slight chill from the rain and already starting to dry the sidewalks. Tiny tendrils of steam rose from Dee's head, the moisture evaporating as his hair soaked up the heat; no doubt Dee, with his dark clothes and black hair, would dry out a lot faster than Ryo would.

"Suppose we should get movin'. Work to do." Dee looked back and forth along the street. "Which way were we goin'?"

"Um…" Ryo turned full circle, orienting himself, and checking the number on the house they were standing in front of. "We just came out of that one, so we were going that way." He pointed.

"Okay, good." Side-by-side, Dee and Ryo set off along the sidewalk again with a spring in their steps, knowing they still had a lot of ground to cover, but not begrudging themselves their brief interlude. Moments like that were what made life worth living.

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The End


End file.
